The instant invention relates to mail insertion apparatus and more particularly to apparatus for loading the individual feeders for envelopes and documents to be inserted into the envelopes.
For many years now, billing forms, e.g. statements, have been supplied to mail insertion systems by means of a continuous web format in the form of a roll. The rolled web is unwound and the billing pieces are separated from the web by a cutter or burster and processed into the inserter mailstream. The use of continuous forms in a roll format has resulted in a tremendous increase in efficiency associated with forms processing. Operators of insertion systems can automatically unwind the roll web into the inserter; 70,000 sheets of uninterrupted forms can be provided in this manner to the inserter system before the roll will be depleted and another roll would have to be installed. The innovation of the roll web has largely automated the computer generated, input forms processing associated with current insertion systems operation.
Unlike the processing for the roll webs, the enclosure and envelope processing devices associated with insertion equipment have not progressed to a point approaching automation. The current, state of the art enclosure and envelope feeding apparatus on modern insertion systems includes manual loading of enclosures and envelopes into their respective feeding devices. This manual loading, in turn, has limited the automation potential of the inserter system as a whole.
Accordingly, the instant invention provides a bulk material handling solution which has the ability to provide extended inserter systems operation with vastly reduced operator intervention. The material handling apparatus of this invention can be incorporated into systems having virtually any mechanical architecture.